Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

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Coordinates: 39°49′34″N 084°02′54″W / 39.82611, -84.04833

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base


Part of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC)


June 2006


Location of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
IATA: FFO – ICAO: KFFO – FAA: FFO
Summary
Airport type Military: Air Force Base
Operator United States Air Force
Location Dayton, Ohio
In use 1948 - present
Commander
Elevation AMSL 823 ft / 251 m
Website www.wpafb.af.mil
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
5L/23R 12,601 3,841 PEM
5R/23L 7,000 2,134 Asphalt
Sources: FAA[1] and official website[2].
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (IATA: FFO, ICAO: KFFO, FAA LID: FFO) is a United States Air Force base located in Greene and Montgomery counties, eight miles (13 km) northeast of the central business district of Dayton, Ohio, United States. Part of the base is located along the city limits of Riverside and is also adjacent to Fairborn and Beavercreek. The base is named after the Wright brothers, who used the Huffman Prairie portion of what became Wright-Patterson as their testing ground, and Frank Stuart Patterson, son and nephew of the co-founders of National Cash Register, who was killed on June 19, 1918, in the crash of his Airco DH.4 at Wilbur Wright Field.

Wright-Patterson AFB is the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command, one of the major commands of the Air Force. "Wright-Patt" (as the base is colloquially called) is also the location of a major USAF Medical Center (hospital), the Air Force Institute of Technology, and the National Museum of the United States Air Force, formerly known as the U.S. Air Force Museum.

It is also the home base of the 445th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command, which flies the C-5 Galaxy heavy airlifter, and it is the headquarters of the Air Force Research Laboratory. The entire base was a census-designated place at the 2000 census, although statistical data has since included the portion in totals for Montgomery County for the city of Riverside.[3] As of the 2000 census, the base had a resident population of 6,656. The permanent party work force at WPAFB as of September 30, 2005, numbered 5,517 military and 8,102 civilian.[4]

Wright-Patterson is the host of the annual United States Air Force Marathon which occurs the weekend closest to the Air Force's anniversary.

Contents

[edit] Units located at Wright-Patterson AFB

[edit] Geography

Wright-Patterson AFB is located at 39°47′55″N 84°5′2″W / 39.79861, -84.08389 [5].

According to the United States Census Bureau, the U.S. Air Force base has a total area of 30.5 km² (11.8 sq mi). 30.3 km² (11.7 sq mi) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 sq mi) of it (0.76%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census[6] of 2000, there were 6,656 people, 1,754 households, and 1,704 families residing in base housing. The population density was 219.8/km² (569.2/sq mi). There are 2,096 housing units at an average density of 69.2/km² (179.2/sq mi). The racial makeup of the base's resident population at the time of the census was 76.11% White, 15.25% Black or African American, 0.45% Native American, 2.30% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 2.09% from other races, and 3.68% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.45% of the population.

There were 1,754 households out of which 78.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 89.0% were married couples living together, 6.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 2.8% were non-families. 2.6% of all households were made up of individuals and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.60 and the average family size was 3.64.

Among base residents in 2000, the population is distributed with 42.5% under the age of 18, 11.6% from 18 to 24, 41.5% from 25 to 44, 4.2% from 45 to 64, and 0.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 23 years. For every 100 females there were 105.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.1 males.

The median income for a household in the U.S. Air Force base is $43,342, and the median income for a family was $43,092. Males had a median income of $30,888 versus $21,044 for females. The per capita income for the U.S. Air Force base is $15,341. About 1.6% of families and 1.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.4% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

As of September 30, 2005, Wright-Patterson had base housing amounting to 2,012 single-family units, 300 units for unaccompanied enlisted personnel, and 455 visitor or temporary living units.[4]

[edit] History

In 1917 Wilbur Wright Field was opened to train pilots and gunners during World War I, followed shortly by the creation of the adjacent Fairfield Air Depot, in what is today Fairborn, Ohio. In 1924, with the closing of the McCook Field test facility, the Dayton community purchased 4,500 acres (1,821 ha) including the leased area on which Wilbur Wright Field was located and named the combined facility for the Wright Brothers.

Wishing to recognize the contributions of the Patterson family (owners of National Cash Register) the area of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam (including Wilbur Wright Field, Fairfield Air Depot, and the Huffman Prairie) was renamed Patterson Field on July 6, 1931, in honor of Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson, who was killed in 1918 during a flight test of a new mechanism for synchronizing machine gun and propeller when a tie rod broke during a dive from 15,000 feet (4,600 m), causing the wings to separate from the aircraft.

The triangular airfield is now the location of the National Museum of the United States Air Force and its adjoining installation remained known as Wright Field, and became the center of Air Corps research and development and flight testing. In 1948, the two fields were merged under the name Wright-Patterson AFB. The former Wright Field became Area B of the combined installation, and the former Patterson Field became Area C.

Between February 1, 1963, and September 30, 1975, the 17th Bombardment Wing (Heavy) of the Strategic Air Command was assigned to the base's Area D. Consisting of B-52s of the 34th Bomb Squadron and KC-135s of the 922nd Air Refueling Squadron, the wing had a nuclear deterrent mission but also supplied aircraft and aircrews for the war in Southeast Asia.

Today, as in the early 1900s, Wright-Patterson is where weapons systems are tested and modified. Missions range from logistics management, research and development, education, flight operations, and many other defense related activities. Wright-Patterson AFB is the home to the Air Force Institute of Technology, an educational institution that supports the Air Force and the Department of Defense. It also contains the USAF's high-security National Air & Space Intelligence Center, where in the cold-war era captured Soviet MIGs were brought to what was then known as the Foreign Technology Division for disassembly and testing. Wright Field is also home to a zero-time nuclear reactor, built during the Cold War, but never taken critical.

[edit] Hangar 18

Wright-Patterson AFB is known among those involved with UFO conspiracy theories because of its connection with the Roswell UFO incident of July 1947. Some believe that Wright-Patterson's Hangar 18, along with the Area 51 installation in Nevada, contains or once contained wreckage of a crashed UFO.[7]

[edit] Dayton Agreement

The base is also notable for being the site of the Dayton Agreement, also known as the Dayton Accords, the peace agreement that put an end to the three and a half years of Bosnian war, one of the armed conflicts in the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia.

[edit] HQ AFMC-GCCS

Wright-Patt is the home of AFMC-GCCS (Global Command and Control System). A system designed for crisis action planning and that supports multiple secure communication protocols.

[edit] Trivia

In 1994, Wright Patterson Air Force Base research laboratories sought $7.5 million to develop a weapon known as "The Gay Bomb", a hormone bomb intended to make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other so that they would be unable to fight.[8]

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was recently featured on an episode of Ghost Hunters on the SciFi channel. The episode investigated Building 70 and the Arnold House. They were reported to have investigated Building 219 as well, but this building was not shown.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ FAA Airport Master Record for FFO (Form 5010 PDF)
  2. ^ Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (official site)
  3. ^ Population Estimates Geographic Change Notes: Ohio, United States Census Bureau, 2006-05-19. Accessed 2007-11-15.
  4. ^ a b Guide to Air Force installations worldwide. Air Force Magazine 2006 USAF Almanac. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
  5. ^ US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990. United States Census Bureau (2005-05-03). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
  6. ^ American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
  7. ^ Witness to Roswell flying saucer incident tells his story (October 26, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-15.
  8. ^ US military pondered love not war (HTML). BBC News (January 15, 2005). Retrieved on 2008-06-02.

[edit] External links

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